My 50mm Lens Tips You Didn’t Ask For

1. Portrait Potential: While the highlighted photo in this set may be of a key, let me tell you, for capturing portraits, nothing beats a prime lens. It brings out the subjects’ natural beauty and creates a sharp focus on them while artfully blurring out the background. I don’t think computational photography found on Android/iOS can perfectly replicate this effect yet. 
2. Embrace the Bokeh: The f/1.8 aperture is not just for low light — it’s a creative tool. You gotta find the right balance between the subject and space, using the bokeh effect to create an environment that frames and compliments the subject.
3. Finding the Sharpness Sweet Spot: When shooting at f/1.8, try stopping to f/2.9 or higher for sharper images while blurring the background. 
4. Conscious Composition: I feel like an old person when I express amazement at the fact that our phones now come with an insane and wildly unnecessary variety of lenses. However, the fixed 50mm focal length encourages more thought in composition, as you have no choice! Move around! Get dynamic with your positioning!
5. Go Manual: Yeah, I’m no Ansel Adams either, but switch over to manual focus and try shooting through obstacles (e.g. foliage, fences) or in low-contrast scenes where the autofocus will struggle. 

If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough. 

Robert Capa

So, I’d go try a prime lens.
– Erik